Flat Eric is a puppet character, created by Quentin Dupieux (better known under his stage name Mr. Oizo), from Levi’s commercials for Sta-Prest One Crease Denim Clothing, built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. His name comes from an idea for a commercial that involved having a car run over his head and flattening it. The idea was not used, but the name stuck.
Flat Eric was based on a dog-like puppet called Stéphane that was similar but with ears and hands fixed. Stéphane appeared in some short films by Mr. Oizo (including a video for the track M-Seq) and had a small cult following in the United Kingdom and France. In March 1999, Levi’s decided to build a television commercial campaign around the puppet, to be directed by Oizo. Eric typically does not speak, communicating only through body language. In the commercials, Flat Eric would ride with his friend Angel (played by Philippe Petit) around California, evading the police as a wanted criminal. As of 2023, Mr. Oizo still uses Flat Eric as a mascot.
The character was renamed Eric, a more “international name”, in contrast to the original French name Stéphane. The name Eric was chosen after Eric Morand, one of the founders of the record label F Communications. He was made by Janet Knechtel for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, in the United Kingdom, and was performed by Drew Massey for all the Levi’s commercials.
